January 15, 2020 |
March 1, 2019 |
February 21, 2019 |
How to Leverage Supply Chain Design Amidst Trade Wars
Uncertainties between the world’s biggest economies continue to grow as nationalism and other geopolitical factors accelerate trade wars. Companies must face the realities of these risks and have a swift way of analyzing the impact on how they source and distribute products. The new tariffs of 10% imposed by the U.S. on some of its trading partners are currently postponed until March 2019 and will have a significant impact on... Read More
February 6, 2019 |
Sensitivity Analysis in Network Optimization
Reasons for sensitivity analysis Optimization, by definition, provides the single best answer given a prescribed set of inputs and a specific objective. The power of algorithms makes it easy to return an optimal answer to a relatively complex problem. For instance, network optimization is a fantastic tool for providing the single best answer for a problem such as minimizing cost under known conditions, including demand, supply, and transportation and labor... Read More
January 31, 2019 |
Inspirational Mentorships at LLamasoft
Mentorships are important because they provide a safe environment for discussion and guidance that can often go both ways between mentor and mentee to strengthen leadership, networking, and interpersonal skills. They also help break down barriers and encourage cross-team discussions. I have had several mentor/mentee relationships over the years, and every discussion opens my eyes to new perspectives and challenges my thinking. I helped start the mentorship program at LLamasoft with... Read More
January 29, 2019 |
The Psychology of Building Enterprise Platforms
We live in a platform-powered shared economy. Nearly all industries from transport (Uber), retail (Amazon), payment (Square), service (Etsy) and much more have been touched by the power of digitalized platforms. In some instances, the power of industry disruptions has been such that governments and regulators have lagged far behind the changes. Over time, governments needed to adjust laws to conform to these new socially accepted conventions. In just the... Read More
January 18, 2019 |
Model Building: Approaches to Automation
An early step in the typical model-building process is identifying data requirements and tracing them back to data sources. Though generally good advice to start with the end in mind, it can be overwhelming to trace Supply Chain Guru tables and fields back to various data sources, especially if you are unfamiliar with either – or both – the SCG tables or the organization’s source or reporting systems. The good... Read More
January 10, 2019 |
Automating the Model Building Process
The Why: Reasons for Automation The holy grail of supply chain design is to have a ‘living model’ at your fingertips. From this living model, you can quickly test scenarios by pulling the supply chain levers under consideration and assessing the impact to key metrics. While extremely valuable insights are unlocked by applying scenarios to the living model, this metaphoric pot of gold is far-too-often at the end of an... Read More
January 2, 2019 |
Thoughts About Supply Chain Design Org Structure
Two common questions among supply chain professionals are, “How should we set up our Supply Chain Design organization?”, or “What is the best structure for a Supply Chain Design organization?” To start, there is no single best structure for a design organization. There are various factors that will help shape the decision, so it really requires some thought on the given organization’s set-up and overall objectives with design. In most... Read More
December 28, 2018 |
Defining Metrics for Success in Supply Chain Design
Mark Armstrong is a Customer Success Strategist at LLamasoft. Not enough companies are measuring successes (or failures) when it comes to supply chain design. As I engage with more and more through our DECODE methodology I consistently see a gap with teams not having metrics in place to measure their Supply Chain Design organization. Or if they do have something in place it’s simply tracking savings opportunities identified through their... Read More
December 20, 2018 |
Meet LLamasoft’s Talent Acquisition Team
Looking to start a new job at LLamasoft? Want to know more about our recruiters? Meet LLamasoft’s Talent Acquisition team to find out what they look for in new members of the herd, and why LLamasoft is a great place to work! Sang Lam, Talent Acquisition Manager What do you look for in recruits? Technical ability is a piece of the puzzle but it goes further than that in our... Read More
December 12, 2018 |
Supply Chain Agility: When Design Meets Planning
While supply chain planning and execution get talked about quite a bit as the two pillars of supply chain management, the third pillar, design, is often thought about as something that is done once a year or so, if at all. However, rapidly evolving business climate as a result of rising consumerism, economic nationalism, channel and SKU complexity, dynamic pricing and promotions amongst others – is necessitating organizations to have speed and... Read More
December 5, 2018 |
How Santa’s Elves Design an Optimized Supply Chain
Get in the holiday spirit by reading a guest blog from one of Santa’s elves, Jack Jolly. For thousands of years, a group of dedicated elves have tried to optimize Santa’s supply chain with handwritten notes and excel sheets. In order to boost elf esteem, the elves at Claus Industries started using LLamasoft’s sophisticated supply chain design software to make sure everyone gets everything on their Christmas list at the... Read More
November 16, 2018 |
LLamacon EMEA Day 2 Takeaways: Faster, Smarter, More Frequent Decision Making and More
Day 2 of LLamacon yet again was packed with some great content and several thought-provoking and highly inspiring presentations, just like day 1. Here are some key takeaways from day 2 by Madhav Durbha, LLamasoft’s Group VP. Get comfortable with complexity: Allistair Balderson of IGD kicked the day off with some very interesting insights into 3 key supply chain features for growth – Self-disruptive and technologically adept, Transparency and Trust,... Read More
November 15, 2018 |
LLamasoft Intern Spotlight: Sarah Wolf, Graphic Designer
LLamasoft is proud to have LLama interns as a part of the herd! Learn more about this great opportunity, and the young talent at our global company by reading about Sarah Wolf’s experience as our Graphic Design Intern. 1. What type of internship are you working on at LLamasoft? Graphic Design, in the Marketing Department. 2. Where did you go to school, and what’s your degree? I went to school... Read More
November 15, 2018 |
LLamaCon EMEA 2018 Day 1 Takeaways: Digital decisioning, Brexit, and more
Day 1 of LLamaCon EMEA 2018 was a packed, content-rich event. Here are some key takeaways captured by Dr. Madhav Durbha, LLamasoft’s Group Vice President. A case for a Digital Decisioning platform: The proceedings kicked off to a great start with a keynote by Razat Gaurav, CEO of LLamasoft, wherein he made a passionate case for speed and agility in supply chain decisioning. Whether it is external factors such as... Read More
November 5, 2018 |
How Supply Chain Design is Rising to Prominence
Early in my career, supply chain design as a discipline was just emerging. It used to be a once a year or so exercise. A company would charter a project to assess how its network consisting of its suppliers, plants, distributions centers, and points of delivery was performing to support the demand and the overall business objectives. Design decisions were made, policies were set, product flows were determined, capital expense... Read More
October 19, 2018 |
3 Key Takeaways from the LLamasoft Southeast Xchange Forum
About 25 users and managers of LLamasoft SupplyChainGuru from several companies converged earlier this week at the UPS Global Supply Chain Headquarters in Atlanta for our Southeast Customer Xchange Forum. Here are few takeaways from the event: Supply Chain network design used to be an annual exercise for many companies. However, leading companies are now modeling networks much more frequently. Increased business volatility and complexity are driving them to constantly... Read More
October 18, 2018 |
What It’s Like to Dine with Demand Planners
I recently met with Stacy, director of demand planning at a large apparel company. The dinner conversation turned to the role of data science in supply chain. She excitedly mentioned that they hired some smart data scientists who are writing machine learning algorithms to improve forecast accuracy. I knew her company invested millions of dollars in implementing a demand planning software over the years. I enquired what they are doing... Read More
October 12, 2018 |
LLamasoft on BBC’s Business Live Inside Track
On 25th September, Razat Gaurav, LLamasoft’s CEO was interviewed on the BBC Business Live’s Inside Track on what LLamasoft is and how the company is designing supply chains for large global brands. If you are in the UK – you can watch the full interview on BBC iPlayer from 25th September until 25th October 2018, or read the transcript of the conversation below. Sally Bundock: Now getting products where you want them... Read More
October 5, 2018 |
Smarter Supply Chains Save Lives (Infographic)
Although there have been significant improvements in global health over the years, low and middle-income countries still face many challenges in terms of accessing life-saving supplies. These issues are deeply tied to inefficiencies within the global health supply chains. LLamasoft is passionate about leveraging our technology to have a meaningful impact on these efforts. Explore our infographic on smarter global health supply chains and learn more about our global impact... Read More
October 2, 2018 |
Meet LLamasoft’s Customer Experience Team!
LLamasoft’s commitment to helping our customers solve complex problems has always been at the core of our culture – but we’re also dedicated to delivering excellent experiences through every interaction our customers have with our products, services, events, and people. It’s not enough only to offer fantastic solutions that meet your needs, but fantastic solutions that are simple and enjoyable as well. LLamasoft’s Customer Experience Team is responsible for understanding... Read More
July 25, 2018 |
How Competent is Your Design? Increasing the Speed to Benefit with the DECODE Methodology
It’s well established that the supply chain industry is evolving and changing at an unprecedented pace. It’s challenging enough to keep up and maintain a business-as-usual approach in light of changing customer expectations, disruptive technologies and economic and geopolitical implications that seem constantly in-flux. But some businesses are exceeding expectations and making major gains despite them. How? With the increased agility and responsiveness provided by establishing an internal supply chain... Read More
May 9, 2018 |
LLamasoft Honored as GM Supplier of the Year
As some of you may have seen, LLamasoft was recently named a GM Supplier of the Year for 2017. The award was presented to LLamasoft by General Motors during its 26th annual Supplier of the Year awards ceremony, held Friday, April 20 in Orlando, Florida. I was lucky enough to attend this special event along with LLamasoft’s Customer Success Manager, Bill Kincaid, who has been working with GM since they first started... Read More
April 23, 2018 |
A Letter from LLamasoft’s CEO, Razat Gaurav
Many of you likely saw the recent news that I “Joined the Herd”, so to speak, and have joined LLamasoft as its new CEO. I’m thrilled to be a part of the company as it continues its incredible growth trajectory, powered by its dedication to provide the best, most innovative supply chain solution that enables strategy, design and policy decisioning all in one product. Having been a part of the... Read More
April 4, 2018 |
Eating Up Increased Costs: Supply Chain Optimization Tips for the Food and Beverage Industry
A recent piece in the Wall Street Journal Logistics Report highlighted how rising logistics costs are squeezing the food and beverage industry. With the increased cost of moving goods, food and beverage companies are being forced to increase the price of their products to maintain their profit margins. But in a world of heightened competition and rapidly-shifting consumer demand, increasing price carries its own risks. So, what can companies do... Read More
March 8, 2018 |
Tariffs, Trade and the Global Supply Chain
Last week President Trump announced new tariffs on steel and aluminum., setting off talk of global trade wars, prompting the departure of a top economic advisor and rattling an already volatile stock market. And although these topics are the ones that make headlines, there is another group of professionals behind the scenes whose jobs have quietly shifted into overdrive — of course, I’m talking about the people in the field... Read More
February 7, 2018 |
RILA Event Preview: How Walmart Achieves Network Design Excellence
Every day there is a new headline about a retailer shutting stores, filing for bankruptcy or dramatically revising their strategy to survive in an overwhelmingly competitive environment. Running a retail supply chain isn’t easy, and it’s only getting worse. In this “live or die” retail environment, retailers are being forced to put all options and scenarios on the table to drive greater efficiency, meet the increasingly high demands of their... Read More
January 23, 2018 |
3 Ways to be Successful in Merger and Acquisition Activities with Supply Chain Design
M&A deal volume and deal value remains strong. According to recent surveys, 56 percent of responding companies expect to actively pursue acquisitions in the next 12 months... Read More
January 8, 2018 |
Millennials in Supply Chain: An Industry and Supply Chain Design Perspective
Toward the end of 2017 two supply chain industry organizations, APICS and CSCMP, released research about the perceptions of millennials working the supply chain industry today. The results were positive overall, with 80 percent of respondents in a study completed by CSCMP and Penske stating that they find the supply chain industry to be a good one on which to focus their career. The reason for this satisfaction spans a... Read More
September 27, 2017 |
World Record Tied: Transportation Optimization in Supply Chain Guru X
Earlier this summer LLamasoft launched Supply Chain Guru X, a completely new supply chain design software application. We’re proud of this new generation of our flagship product, combining the best of the best supply chain optimization technologies, with exhaustive rounds of user-feedback to offer the best solution to meet needs and objectives. As part of this latest version, we’ve also made significant improvements to our transportation optimization solving technologies. Here... Read More
August 31, 2016 |
The Supply Chain Benefits and Challenges for Subscription-Based Meal Kits
Millions of consumers are flocking to subscription-based meal kits as a means of simplifying the at-home dining experience. And as a member of one-such service myself, the convenience is not lost on me. But as a professional working in the supply chain technology industry, I can’t help but wonder as I open up my box of organic pea shoots, Chilean sea bass and mango remoulade, how on Earth are they... Read More
March 15, 2016 |
Order Execution: A Vital Component of Improving Demand and Supply Planning Activities—Don’t Entrust it to Spreadsheets
Replenishment order calculation is fundamental to the success of supply chain planning. You need to quickly incorporate data from cross-functional, global demand planning processes and inputs from finance and procurement as well as inventory policies. Using Optimiza order execution, you can simplify this complex process and move away from spreadsheet-based tools and subjective decision-making. Focusing on both the inbound and outbound orders, Optimiza takes into account all internal and external... Read More
March 2, 2016 |
Coupling Art with Science in Supply Chain Design to Overcome Major Disruptions
Supply chains come in all varieties depending on their structure and organization, but even the most simple supply chains are inherently complex. That complexity, coupled with the multitude of disruptions and unplanned events of our world, can quickly derail a global supply chain. Most companies dedicate numerous resources to combat these disruptions, which also vary by industry, but here are several examples that nearly every business will have to address... Read More
February 20, 2016 |
Accurate Inventory Levels are the Key to Balancing Supply and Demand
Does your business still swing between periods of high and low inventory depending on business priorities? Smart inventory planning determines the optimal quantity and timing of inventory and aligns it with sales and production capacity. Your job is to empower and your teams to regularly review safety stock levels and amend policy parameters to provide the elasticity required to yield the quickest return. AgustaWestland Uses Optimiza to Identify and Redistribute... Read More
February 17, 2016 |
Our Take: The Post-Holiday Retail Inventory Strategy Reset
Every year, like clockwork, within the first few weeks of the New Year stories trickle in about retailers’ inventory fiascos during the busy holiday shopping season. This year was no different, from big box stores to shoe and other specialty retailers, many faced challenges implementing the right inventory strategy to carry through the industry’s busiest and most profitable season. Arguably the worst thing that can happen to a brick and... Read More
February 15, 2016 |
Managing Excess Maintenance and Repair Costs while Covering Overall Demand
The aerospace and defense industry is affected by a changing business environment; shrinking budgets, changing acquisition models, globalization and increasing customer demand. The industry is faced with increased pressure to create sustainable results for equipment uptime while delivering improved financial performance to the bottom line. Increased service issues, often a direct result of inefficient supply chains, has resulted in enormous cost overruns, delayed product rollouts and missed delivery dates. Many... Read More
January 16, 2016 |
Creating a Supply Chain Design Center of Excellence (CoE)
Establishing an Internal CoE Expands the Benefit of Supply Chain Modeling Enterprise-Wide Some of the best-run supply chains in the world are making supply chain design a core business function, and using this competency as a competitive weapon for their business. They are establishing internal supply chain design centers of excellence which utilize modeling technology to continuously optimize the end-to-end supply chain and stay ahead of other companies in their... Read More
January 16, 2016 |
Logistics Optimization Software and Tools
Simplified Logistics Optimization and Simulation In the past, network design initiatives were performed every one to three years to help a company realign its manufacturing and distribution center locations and minimize transportation costs. These logistics optimization projects could take four to six months or longer, and model accuracy was limited by the need to limit the number of products and sites. Logistics Optimization: Supply chain design is now an essential... Read More
January 15, 2016 |
Building a Business Case for a Supply Chain Dynamic Network Optimization Project
Supply chain optimization can enable businesses to keep up with the pace of change and sustain a competitive advantage by significantly improving in the areas of cost, service and risk. You may recognize possible benefits and savings for your organization, but getting there can be a challenge. Executives are short on time and resistant to commit resources unless they can clearly see resulting value. And without those resources, your project... Read More
June 17, 2015 |